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If you could do one thing to make every backcountry trip more enjoyable, would you? If you’re one of the many backpackers who finish every day on the trail sore from neck to toes, the answer may be simpler than you think.

After two decades of backcountry trips as a field editor and correspondent for Backpacker Magazine, experience has convinced me to keep my pack as light as possible—every unnecessary ounce removed from it makes my trip happier. My evolution was partly about comfort, but also emerged from a slow rethinking about why I’m out there—which is not to have a lot of stuff with me, but to experience a place.

I don’t embrace extreme measures. I don’t sleep on a bed leaves, harvest wild edibles or starve, live in one pair of socks, or make my own gear. I won’t use a wafer-thin foam pad or sleeping bag, because the energy saved through reducing my pack’s weight by ounces would be eclipsed by the energy sacrificed to sleep loss.

My approach to ultralight backpacking does not compromise safety or comfort—the point is to increase comfort and safety. If you’re not accomplishing both objectives, you need a new strategy. Going ultralight should not entail a fixed gear list or weight limit, but rather a flexible and customizable set of guidelines. My pack’s weight varies from trip to trip—in one place I may use a tarp and a 30° F. bag, in another a tent and a three-season bag—but I scrutinize everything, trying to make my load as light as possible. That guiding principal has completely changed my on-trail experience and how I go about planning a hike.

If you’ve never thought much about paring down pack weight, the tips that follow will help you realize significant weight savings—and maybe revolutionize your backpacking experience. If you’ve already taken steps to reduce your load, my advice may still help guide you toward incremental weight reductions or help clarify decisions about what to bring or not bring.

Why Lighten Up?

I started out backpacking with the conviction that more stuff made you safer and more comfortable. Carrying 50 pounds or more enough times prompted me to question that notion—but gradually seeing that I didn’t really need all that stuff convinced me that assumption was wrong. I now believe a heavy pack is often a major factor in backcountry injuries and accidents, particularly common ones like blisters, sprains, strains, and falls.

There are many reasons for lightening your load. Maybe you want to hike farther each day. Maybe your knees or back have begun bothering you and you want to continue backpacking without suffering. Maybe you’re already saddled with a lot of gear and food for your young kids who can’t carry much weight yet, or with climbing gear for a multi-day trip, and you want to avoid having a ridiculously oversized pack. Certainly, if you plan to attempt a major thru-hike on any long trail, your chances of success will hinge more on your pack weight than on weather or your fitness level on day one.

Ultralight backpacking is not necessarily synonymous with ultra-long days (sometimes called “fastpacking”). However far you want to hike each day, or your body is capable of going, your enjoyment of every step along the way will correlate directly with how many pounds are on your back.

That said, though, hiking with a lighter pack lets most people walk a little faster and farther. I like seeing as much of a place as I can within the time I have. Ultralight backpacking enables me to walk farther, in the same amount of time, without using more energy than when I carried a heavier pack. I’ve done for myself what the auto industry did by making cars more fuel-efficient: I’ve increased my miles per gallon.

Mark Fenton hikes past Marie Lake on the John Muir Trail.

The Big Picture

Making decisions that determine your pack weight begins with knowing what your destination may throw at you. Know the climate for that time of year and the weather forecast. Know how much water will be available. Find out what you can about the difficulty of the trails you’ll hike, the number and difficulty of any river fords, or anything else that can slow you down.

Then digest this information with a chaser of perspective. In many mountain ranges, you’ll be told that snow can fall even in August. But in reality, if you’re heading into New Hampshire’s White Mountains for four days with a forecast of 75° F. highs and lows around 50, you’d roast in a 15° F. bag. On the other hand, if I’m heading out for a week in Glacier National Park in late August or September—knowing that the weather forecast loses reliability over that length of time and across such a large area of high mountains—I’ll carry a three-season puffy jacket (as opposed to lighter summer insulation) and long underwear. That buffer of insulation also enables me to still use a light, summer-rated bag.

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Trimming pack weight smartly has to be part of a complete strategy for a trip. If I’m planning to hike 15 or 20 miles a day and want to plan food for, say, five days, I need a high degree of confidence that every one of my companions and I are capable of walking that far in the terrain we’ll encounter. We have to be sure that factors like fatigue, weather, route-finding complications, or injury aren’t likely to drastically reduce our daily mileage. If one person slows us down; or heavy rains turn the trail to knee-deep mud; or a storm confines us to our tents for a day or more; or trails haven’t been maintained in years and are choked with downed trees; or someone who’s inexperienced at walking on rugged trails sprains an ankle, then there’s a risk that we’ll run low on food or someone could suffer an injury.

So going ultralight does narrow your margin of error. But that doesn’t make the strategy inherently dangerous. The question is: how much of a margin of error do you need? Are you hiking with kids or newbie adults—or a small group of fit, experienced people who you know are capable of walking even farther than you’ve planned? Although some of the variables I mention above are not predictable, you can usually know in advance whether, for instance, recent rains have made the trail boggy or impending weather could do so while you’re out there. And hiking injuries aren’t entirely random; they often occur when someone is pushed beyond his or her fitness or experience level.

Ultralight hiking demands that you consider how “ultralight” your party can afford to go. It also often places the most-experienced person, or the trip organizer, in a position of responsibility for leading the conversation about what to bring and who to invite.

Do you like The Big Outside? I’m Michael Lanza, the creator of The Big Outside, recognized as a top outdoors blog by USA Today, a Trip Advisor site, and others. Subscribe for updates about new stories and free gear giveaways by entering your email address in the box at the the bottom of this story or in the left sidebar, and follow my adventures on Facebook and Twitter.

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Todd Arndt in the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne River, Yosemite National Park.

The Checklist

Four key principals:

1. Don’t begin with your old gear list and remove items one by one; start with nothing on the list and add only what’s necessary for a particular trip.
2. Weigh every item, from gear to clothes and food—this helps you assess the value of everything you carry, and motivates you to downsize.
3. Don’t compromise comfort to the point where it affects your enjoyment. Two examples:
* The lightest backpack may save you a pound or two at the expense of sore shoulders and hips. Try on a pack with all of your gear inside to gauge how it’ll feel all day on the trail. Find one with enough padding and support for the weight you’ll carry.
* If you don’t sleep well on a thin foam pad, carry an inflatable air mattress; but unless you’re very tall, use a short air mat (unless the ground’s cold) and place your empty pack under your feet.
4. Discuss team gear with companions to avoid duplication.

I’ve listed in the chart below what I carried on a late-August ultralight thru-hike of the John Muir Trail in California’s High Sierra. It was mostly beyond mosquito season, allowing us to use a tarp instead of a tent, and not too cold, so my bag was rated 32° F. My base pack weight (without food or water) was 15 lbs.—including 2.5 pounds of bear canister, not needed in many places. With careful food and water planning (see below), this gear list would keep total pack weight on day one under 25 pounds if you’re starting with five days of food, and under 30 pounds with a week’s food supply. However, if your maximum pack weight exceeds 25 pounds, I’d recommend getting a pack with more support, which would weigh 2.5 to three pounds instead of the 1.5 pounds in my chart.

*In buggy or rainy conditions that require a tent, an ultralight model would add about a pound per person.
**Adjust warmth of layers as needed for expected temperatures; but unless you’re heading for an extremely wet destination, there’s no need to carry extra base layers. I bring one T-shirt, one long-sleeve top, two pairs of synthetic underwear and good hiking socks for most hikes up to four days, three pairs for longer trips, and no more. For very mild trips, leave the puffy jacket at home.
***Without a bear canister for food storage—required in the High Sierra and some national parks but unneeded in many places—my JMT base pack weight would have been under 13 lbs.
+Low-cut shoes collect more mud, water, dirt, and stones inside than a mid-cut, and the lightest mids are just a few ounces heavier than a low, so consider the trade-off. With either low-cut or mid-cut footwear, wear low gaiters if you expect a lot of trail debris or wet conditions, but they can be too warm on hot days.
++As a photographer, I usually carry a digital SLR camera, two lenses, and a front pack, which weigh a combined six pounds, and a four-ounce mini tripod; a small point-and-shoot digital camera weighs a fraction of that.

David Ports hikes past Sawtooth Lake in Idaho’s Sawtooth Wilderness.

Old and Heavy Vs. New and Light

There’s an unavoidable economic reality to lightening your backpacking load: It can cost money. Lighter gear is usually more expensive than heavier counterparts. If buying lighter gear isn’t immediately in your budget, acquire it incrementally. Start with a light tent—that’s one of the heaviest items you’ll carry, and a piece of gear where you can make probably the greatest reduction of weight and bulk. Next, get a light sleeping bag—another good place to reduce weight but especially bulk, which makes it more feasible to use a smaller and lighter backpack—your next purchase. From there, scale down other items like your stove and cook set, rain jacket, sleeping pad, etc.

Are you suffering from sticker shock despite knowing that lighter gear is within your budget? I always tell people this: If you’re going to get plenty of use out of the gear, given how many years it will last you, you are certainly getting your money’s worth—especially when you consider the added value in increased personal enjoyment of your trips.

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Water and Food

Gear constitutes a fixed weight that doesn’t vary over the course of a trip. But food represents a diminishing weight (unless you resupply), and water a constantly variable weight. And water and food are heavy: On an average day in the backcountry, you’re liable to consume two pounds of food and eight pounds or more of water.

Imagine an ideal goal of always draining your water bottle shortly before reaching the next water source, and eating your last morsels of food an hour or two before finishing a hike. In that scenario, you avoid carrying more than needed at every step along the way. Then ask yourself how much of a margin of safety you need, given the trip circumstances. What’s the walking time to the next expected water source, and the likelihood of not finding water at it—or the one after that, and how much farther is it? What are the real chances of not finishing the hike on time, or running out of food long before reaching the road?

Over the past three decades, I’ve underestimated food planning only a few times. The worst outcome was having to ration what we had, going a little hungry for a day—not exactly an Ernest Shackleton-caliber epic of near-starvation. Like most traditional backpackers, I have far more often carried an excessive surplus of food the entire length of a hike, and a couple of liters—more than four pounds—of water through mountains where water is abundant.

Whether it’s three or five pounds or more, the cumulative impact on your body of hauling that superfluous weight is substantial over the course of, say, the approximately 100,000 steps taken on a 50-mile hike. Here’s how to minimize that impact.

• The best way to carry water is inside yourself—drink a lot at water sources.
• Disregard the old rule about carrying a minimum of two liters of water, regardless of circumstances. Instead, consider how long it will take you to reach the next water source and how much water you’ll drink on the way there. Often, it’s no more than one liter.
• Water treatment systems vary greatly in weight and bulk. Unless you need a filter for water that’s silted or potentially contaminated by agricultural chemicals or heavy metals, use a lightweight, compact product like chlorine drops, iodine pills, or a SteriPen, which purifies water using ultraviolet light. (For a party of four or more, I like the efficiency and per-person weight of the Platypus GravityWorks Water Filter.)
• Plan in advance exactly what you’ll eat every day, and weigh your food. Most people won’t consume more than two pounds a day, and some will eat less than that; by weighing and experimenting, you’ll quickly learn how much you need. Even when thru-hiking the John Muir Trail in a week, averaging 31 miles a day, my companions and I found we just couldn’t put down more than about 4,000 calories a day each, which worked out to slightly less than two pounds.
• Think of your food both as a steadily diminishing weight and something you’ll carry at least a portion of every day. Logically, you’ll eat your heaviest dinner the first night on the trail. But the trip’s final meals will ride in your pack for days—the pound you carry for 50 miles before eating it demands roughly five times as much energy from you as the pound you consume within the hike’s first 10 miles. Make those last meals as light as possible, while keeping in mind that you’re often hungrier after a few days on the trail.
• Eliminate all excess original food packaging, repackaging everything in sealable plastic bags. Some can function as trash bags in the backcountry; others you can clean out afterward and reuse.
• Consider leaving the stove, fuel, and cooking gear at home and eating only foods that require no cooking. Peanut butter, bagels, tortillas, cheese, jerky, pepperoni, smoked salmon, a variety of dried fruits (mangoes, dates, raisins, etc.) and nuts (salted peanuts, cashews, sunflower kernels, soy nuts, etc.), crackers, chocolate, GORP, honey sesame sticks, and candy are surprisingly satisfying—and most of them pack a lot more calories per ounce than prepared foods. And you’ll appreciate the convenience of not cooking when you’re tired. I find this works best in mild weather; on cooler trips, I like having hot drinks and food.

Gary Kuehn hiking the Rees-Dart Track in New Zealand’s Southern Alps.

Tips for the Trail

• Hike in the cool morning and evening hours, and rest during the afternoon heat. Going ultralight makes packing up camp quick and easy, facilitating early starts.
• Plan fewer miles on days when your pack is heaviest with food and more miles when it’s lighter.
• Keep snacks handy so you can eat and drink small amounts frequently, especially on longer days.
• Make better time by being more efficient when stopped: Take breaks where you can refill and drink water, eat, go to the bathroom, and briefly remove shoes and socks to keep feet and footwear cool and dry for blister prevention.
• When base or outer layers get wet from sweat or rain, dry them with body heat. Slow your pace to avoid sweating in the final 30 minutes before reaching camp. In camp, if necessary, wear a damp base layer over a dry layer to dry it without getting cold. Stuff damp socks into a pocket of the pants or jacket you’re wearing.

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15 Responses to The Simple Equation of Ultralight Backpacking: Less Weight = More Fun

A: Lighter weight often means weaker: Shop with care. I have a light weight Sierra designs goretex rain parka. I also have a MEC expedition rain parka. The latter is far heavier, but is tough enough to crash through the bush that makes up much of the back country in Willmore Wilderness (just north of Jasper National Park.) The Sierra designs is made of something a bit heavier than rip stop nylon, but would be shreds all too soon in brush.

Similarly I had a coated light weight tarp. But many days of buffetting by heavy wind has stretched the fabric to the point it is no longer water proof.

I am leary of unltralight packs. From running trips with teens I’ve seen too many zippers that parted, straps that pulled away from pack bodies, stress points that tore.

B: Where I go, fires are allowed. I bring quart tin cans (restaurant supply tins — #10 tin can 105 fluid oz) equipped with bailing wire handles. They are a few oz. each. Fit over a rolled foam pad. One pot makes supper. One makes hot water for beverages. If there are 2 people, bring 2 pots. 3 pots for 3-4 people. At 4 people you usually need to make two pots of supper — or, as I prefer, a soup and a main course. A leatherman in plier mode makes for controlled pouring of hot water, or reaching the pot off the fire.

I’ll admit to wanting a hot meal very much in the evening. Even in summer here, the mountains are cool. Snow can occur any month of the year. The hike I just returned from had lows in high 30’s (F). Rainy weather makes this even more important. Backcountry here is often on rutted trails knee to chest deep in willow shrubs, which on rainy days provide continuous wet, even if the rain is intermittent.

C: Last trip I took an empty 2 liter pop bottle per person. Intent was to use these for long dry passes. The weather was rainy, and they weren’t needed. But they are light, almost indestructable, and free. To save a few more grams, you can use bottled water water bottles, which are of thinner plastic, but don’t wear as well.

D: I always bring a pair of some form of alternate footwear — crocks, or water socks usually, so I can change into dry footwear once we reach camp. Wet feet are a fact of life even on a sunny trip. The north end of Munn Pass crosses the creek 35 times, the path IS the creek for stretches over 50 feet another dozen times, and swampy bits of trail abound.

E: At least one walking stick is a necessity for balance on scree and in water crossings. Mine spent 80% of the trip strapped to my pack, but I was glad to have it the other 20%. They also can aid in setting up a tarp in difficult circumstances.

F: I agree with you regarding extra packaging. We made one exception. We brought Stoned Wheat Thins for our lunches (along with peanut butter, cheese…) We brought the original box to give some protection against crushing. This worked well. With 2 of us, one person carried breakfast and supper, one all the lunch. Lunch was split into 2 meals.

G: 2 lbs dry weight per person per day is safe. Probably over by about 10-15% That’s based on 150 lbs per person. Warning: Teenagers during a ‘hungry year’ need 20% over this, regardless of weight. If you have little people, divide their total weight by 120 to get adult equivalents. (120: Small people eat proportionally more than an adult due to usually less body fat and higher metabolism) You can get some weight reduction by including more fats in your diet. Fats run 9 kCal/gram while starch, sugar, and protein run 4 kCal/gm.

H: Do a ‘shakedown’ hike before a big event. This can be as short of as 2 days, but should be at least 15% of the length of expedition scale expedtions. (E.g. if you are planning a month long trip, do a 4-5 day shakedown.) This will help you find out what you forgot, and may give you insight as to what you don’t really need.

I: At my wife’s insistence, I now carry an InReach device. This allows emergency two way communication at the price of about 4 oz. If you only turn it on for communicating, it will run for weeks. We had it on from after breakfast to after supper. After 5 days it was down to 27% charge.

J. I carry a repair kit with a spare of each kind of buckle, a sewing awl with heavy thread, safety pins, the end of a roll of duct tape, a glasses screwdriver and spare screws.

L. All trips have two sets of maps. Carried by different people. One can be photocopies.

M. If you take GPS, take enough batteries. If you are recording your tracks, you typically need a set a day. Don’t believe the battery life figures until testing. This is another item for the shakedown hike test. Do remember to minimize the illumination for longer battery life.

Hi Sherwood, thanks for those detailed suggestions. You are correct that lightweight gear is generally less durable than heavier gear, but there are exceptions to that, and I try to note durability in all of my reviews. I concur with most of your thoughts, but I would stress that what I carry varies from trip to trip depending on the weather forecast and environment.

Hi Pam, good on you for taking on such an ambitious challenge. But I think your goal of a JMT thru-hike the way you describe it is realistic, and I say that as an age peer of yours. To answer your specific questions and offer some suggestions:

Strength and aerobic training should be considered mandatory prep for a long thru-hike, so you’re smart to be doing that. (See this story, too: https://thebigoutside.com/cranking-out-big-days-ramp-up-your-hikes-and-trail-runs/). But nothing prepares you for a long backpacking trip better than carrying a pack with what you’ll have on the JMT for a few shakedown weekends, and a somewhat longer trip if you can fit it in.

I don’t think you have to worry about hiking part of the JMT alone. There are a lot of backpackers on the JMT. You may meet companions to hike with, or maybe not, but you will meet and see other hikers, most of them friendly, quite frequently. If or when you’d prefer more solitude, hit the trail at first light in the morning (packing light makes it easier to get on the trail early) and hike in the evening (more pleasant than the hot afternoons).

If you train well, 15-mile days are entirely realistic. Experiment with hiking 10-12 miles a day first, on your pre-JMT backpacking weekends, and see if you can work up to 15-mile days on those weekends. Within a week on the JMT, when you get your trail legs, you may find yourself hiking 20-mile days without having to put in ridiculously long hours, too. Let your prep hikes guide your strategy, and don’t start out too hard, that risks injury. Build up your leg strength and endurance.

One challenge of the JMT is the lack of convenient resupply anywhere south of Muir Trail Ranch, as you know. But if you hike north-south and build up to 15-mile days, you should be able to do that southern half of the trail in about eight days; at two pounds of food per day, that’s 16 pounds of food. Keep your base pack weight to 15 pounds (or less), and you’re at or under 35 pounds (with 1-2 liters of water). Experiment with your food on prep backpacking weekends. Weigh everything and count calories; know how much you’ll need to eat, so you’re not either going hungry or carrying way too much. I was perfectly happy eating all dry food for a week on the JMT; it was satisfying and I was hungry! But you should try it out on a couple of weekend trips first, to see if you like it.

Hi there, I am planning on doing the JMT South to North in a couple of weeks and would love your input. I am beginning the hike with the summit of Mt Whitney. The original plan was to summit Mt Whitney with my wife on her birthday but I decided it would be an opportune time to do the trail I have been longing to for many years. I am choosing northbound largely because I was told I could extend my existing permit. I will also be hiking solo. I live in San Diego at sea level and my training regimen has been running 7-13 miles several times a week, hikes of up to 24 miles several times a month and cross training at the gym to increase muscle strength. Even still, I am nervous! I know the altitude in the beginning will be something to worry about, and I rarely am higher than a couple thousand feet. Logistically, I will be carrying a full pack from Whitney portal to Muir Ranch where I will pick up a food cache. I am not carrying cooking gear although I decided as a precautionary measure to carry a Big Agnes Fly Creek 1 person tent to protect from the elements/critters. It weighs in at roughly 2 lbs. I am using a Sawyer water filter which receives rave reviews and allows me to not take time pumping water, rather just fill up a Smart bottle and go. I will be carrying dried fruit and meats that I will eat early on, and save peanut butter, tortillas and chia for the latter part of the hike to Muir Ranch. From Muir Ranch on, I feel comfortable in knocking out big mileage days since I have completed these sections before. It’s the initial stretch of several high altitude passes and remoteness that are on my mind.

I plan on completing the trail in 10 days, 12 days for accounting rest days if necessary. I welcome the added challenge of the northbound trek but really just want to hear from a vet what they have to say!

Hi Tim, you have a great adventure ahead of you. Sounds like you’re training smartly and carrying good gear that’s lightweight. I agree your biggest challenge will be carrying a fully loaded pack at high elevation right out of the gate. I would try to get there a day or two early and camp at Whitney Portal or partway up Whitney to begin acclimating, then pace yourself according to how you feel over the first few days. Those first passes are high, but much of the terrain between them is at more moderate elevations.

Hi Michael! I am a first time JMT hiker summer 2016. I am an avid day hiker and will do some 2-3 day hikes in spring to prepare. I live in Lake Tahoe so I have a good place to practice! 🙂 I am also losing 20 lbs and doing a lot of strength training. Here’s are my concerns: I am 55 years old and this trip is my way of celebrating this milestone along with 25 years of sobriety! I may have to hike part of the trail alone – I have friends with me for the first week and another friend joining the last week. I really want to pack light. I know I can do 10 miles/day, but I would like to try to average 15 mpd. I have read pack lists from women who have ended up with 40-50 lbs! I have no desire to carry that much. Can you give me an idea of a realistic daily mileage and how I can keep my pack 35 lbs or under without running out of food and water and where I should stop to resupply? Are there days that I can do more miles and days that I will be moving slower? I am going to invest in as much lightweight equip as possible. Do you have to have a new pair of socks every day? That seems like a lot of weight! I also love your idea of bringing food that doesn’t require stove etc. and I love all the items on your suggestion list! Is it realistic to do this? I signed up for your newsletter and thank you in advance for your help!

Great POST and thanks for sharing!
Posts like this have helped me drop weight significantly and (spend more money, lol)
I was a 55+ pound pack weekend warrior, I am now down to a 21 lb pack with fuel, food and water for a weekend-three day trip, slightly heavier for winter trips.

I finally got my food packing down, however I always have some left over, I always bring a tad extra.
My only caveat is water, I am still working on this and will try to reduce my water weight next trip out.

I do have one more item I am struggling with, my Canon EOS7D and a 17-55mm lens, its a bit heavy @ near 3.5lbs. (not included in pack weight above) and was very cumbersome on my last trip. The next trip scheduled I will be leaving it home and relying on my phone. (looking into a lightweight point&shoot)

Another great way to lighten the load is to drop some body weight, if someone is overweight like I am.
I dropped 20lbs. from my body weight, that’s 45 pounds lighter than my first hike.(got 20 more to go)

A few other things to consider is Experience and Technique, these two things have helped me to reduce weight also.

Thanks for this very informative post! Over the past five years, I’ve shaved about 10 pounds from my base weight and am still working on adjustments. Giving up the security of carrying a full 3-liter camelbak has been a huge change for me. It still makes me nervous to not have extra water, but it makes the hiking so much easier.

Hi Christine, yes, there’s no hard-and-fast rule about how much water you need to carry. In the desert, it may be a gallon or two; but in mountains with abundant water sources, it may only be a liter or two. Sounds like you’ve already made good progress in reducing your load.